Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said that West Bengal should go for a digital drive to lead the fourth industrial revolution with Reliance Jio already making one tenth of its total investment in the state in the digital space.

Speaking at the 5th edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit(BGBS), Ambani said Reliance Jio’s investment stands at Rs 28,000 crore in the state, one tenth of the total investment it has so far done in the digital space. “Now we have firmed up our plan for a further investment of over Rs 10,000 crore. This plan is already under implementation,” Ambani said.

On the first day of the BGBS, West Bengal got fresh investment commitment of around Rs 43,050 crore including Rs 10,000 crore investment commitment from Reliance Jio, Rs 15,000 crore investment commitment from Great Eastern Energy Corporation (GEECL) for extracting shale gas, Rs 7,500 crore from Sajjan Jindal-run JSW Group to implement a 1000-MW pump storage project, Rs 2, 000 crore by H Energy for laying gas pipeline, Rs 1,700 crore by ITC for setting up a personal care manufacturing facility, Rs 500 crore by Coca Cola for setting up another facility in North Bengal, Rs 3,000 crore by DP World for starting project work on the long talked Kulpi Port and Rs 350 crore by the Makaibari Tea Garden director, Rudra Chatterjee to set up health city in Siliguri.

While all the industrial captains present in the summit said that West Bengal was the new destination for investment and the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been able to change the perception about the state, Banerjee said the rate of growth of the state’s GDP was 9.1% higher than the national figure.

Ambani added that West Bengal has gained a foothold in the group of the fastest growing states in India , accounting for the highest rise in credit flow to the MSME sector among all Indian states. West Bengal will be able to contribute a quarter of India’s GDP by 2035 if it embraced the power of digital technologies.

He said Reliance envisaged to cover 100% of the state’s population with Jio network and this would be achieved by 2019 end. Jio’s gigafiber project of connecting Bengal with optic fibre to bring superior digital services to every home has progressed well and this would transform every home of Bengal to a smart home.

Pointing out to the opportunity that West Bengal had in warehousing and logistics, Ambani said Jio and Reliance retail would shortly launch a unique new commerce platform to empower at least 3 crore small shopkeepers.

Lucknow: Public sector energy generation major NTPC Limited has planned to invest almost Rs 10,300 crore in Greenfield power plants in Uttar Pradesh.

These plants include a proposed 1,600 megawatt (Mw) (2×800) thermal power project at Shaktinagar (Singrauli) in Sonebhadra district of UP. This project is estimated to entail investment of Rs 9,000 crore, NTPC Regional Executive Director (North) Kamlesh Kumar Singh has said.

“The proposal of the new power plant has been approved and we have signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL),” he informed adding the plant would also give power to Uttarakhand.

Besides, NTPC is setting up 2 solar power plants of 225 Mw and 25 Mw capacity at Bilhaur (Kanpur) and Auraiya district respectively, he said adding the projects would involve investment of Rs 1,300 crore. Read the rest of this entry »

Bhubaneswar: India’s renewable energy space is turning out to be an attractive domain for foreign investors. In total, this sector has drawn $6.84 billion FDI from April 2000 to June 2018.

More than $42 billion has been invested in the country’s renewable energy sector since 2014, said a report by Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), after interpreting figures from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Over the next four years, the renewable energy sector is projected to attract investments pegged at $80 billion.

Competition in green energy domain has heated up especially in the solar power segment with tenders in tariffs hitting record low of Rs 2.44 per unit in December 2017. The large integrated players are in a better position with higher returns compared to the smaller contractors. Read the rest of this entry »

After establishing Patanjali Ayurved as a leader in the FMCG space, Baba Ramdev wishes to spend Rs 100,000 crore on charity work. Speaking at a conference organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation in Delhi, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev said that he wishes to spend rupees one lakh crore in the sectors related to health, education, research and development, agriculture and environment.

Patanjali Ayurved is now putting its focus on the agriculture and food processing sector, PTI reported citing Baba Ramdev. The FMCG company wants to bring out more products from the farm and food processing sector, he said. In addition, Patanjali wants to work in the solar energy sector, he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Lucknow: In a boost to its green energy roadmap, the Yogi Adityanath government has cleared six biofuel investment proposals worth almost Rs 17 billion.

These private projects are proposed to be set up in 5 districts, including Sitapur, Hapur, Meerut, Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar.

These projects include a mega biofuel plant to be developed by SunLight Fuels spanning almost 90 acres in Sitapur and costing Rs 15.5 billion. The company would use bagasse, a sugarcane byproduct extracted during sugar production process, to generate biofuel. Read the rest of this entry »

Russian Direct Investment Fund or commonly known as RDIF – Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (with reserved capital of $10 billion) has been increasing its footprints in India steadily eyeing to boost infrastructure funding. It was RDIF that along with DP World and Government of India co-founded National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). In a wide-ranging interview Kirill Dmitriev, CEO, RDIF tells ET’s Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury that RDIF will sign two key deals at this annual summit on Friday – one deal with NIIF to jointly invest in port and logistics; second deal — joint investment in mineral fertilisers. Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi: The government will soon come out with supplementary guidelines for the Prime Minister Awaas Yojana (Urban) to enable private investment in affordable housing.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, said: “We will soon issue guidelines to enable private investments in affordable housing even on private lands under Affordable Housing in Partnership component of PMAY (Urban). We believe to achieve our targets for Housing for All, we will need to partner with the private sector.”